


Runaways

by SsadD_l0serS



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Children of Characters, F/M, Flash Forward, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, Future-90s, Hyde and Jackie run away
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-21 21:15:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30027978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SsadD_l0serS/pseuds/SsadD_l0serS
Summary: After the summer that Jackie and Hyde first got together they both run away 17 years later a teenager shows up on the doorstep of Eric's house-Just go along with it it'll be good I promise ;)
Relationships: Eric Forman & Steven Hyde, Eric Forman/Donna Pinciotti, Fez/Original Character(s), Jackie Burkhart & Donna Pinciotti, Jackie Burkhart/Steven Hyde, Michael Kelso/Brooke Rockwell, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 80
Kudos: 48





	1. Prologue

**Early august 1978**

-

Kelso and Donna had just come back from the California trip, it hadn’t even been a day when they found a letter for each of them on the circular table in the basement. Each was labeled. One for Mr. and Mrs. Forman, Michael, Donna, Fez, Eric, and Steven. No one really knew what was going on, but they all knew that there was only one person that called them all by their first names, and she wasn’t with them.

They brought the letters up to the kitchen and handed them all out to who they were addressed to and silently read them. No one knew what was written on anyone else’s letter, but they all knew that they were signed the same way

Love,

Jackie Burkhart.

No one was given a clue as to why she left or where she was going, except for one letter. No one knew this not even when a little more than a month later when Hyde dropped out of school and the Forman’s were left with a note on the kitchen counter.

_I’m leaving. I know you guys deserve a better explanation than that, but I’m done with this stupid town. I know that I should’ve given you guys more notice, but I didn’t really decide until today. Don’t hate me, please. I know I try to seem all indifferent and zen when it comes to emotions and all that crap, but I love you all. I love you for taking me in when my mom skipped out on me, I love you for feeding me when I didn’t have food at home and giving me Red and Forman’s old shit when I couldn’t afford my own. Seriously, thank you. For everything. You raised me as your own and I couldn’t ask for anyone better. I know me ditching town without a word may seem like I don’t appreciate everything you did for me, but I do._

_Hyde._

After that day no one knew what to do. They had already been looking for Jackie and had found nothing and now Hyde was gone, a third of their group was missing and they couldn’t do anything about it.

No one heard from either of them, no one knew how they were doing or where they were. That is until almost 17 years later.

-

**Mid December 1995**

-

Eric and Donna were sitting on their couch enjoying a lazy Saturday afternoon away from their kids and watching tv when a knock sounded through their house.

Eric opened the door to see a teenage girl standing on their front porch looking around. She had aviators on, a raw-hide jacket, and a band t-shirt on under that. Her hands were in the back pockets of her jeans and she had long blonde curly hair that reached just past her shoulders. The first thought that came to Eric's mind was that she looked like Hyde. Like if Hyde went through a time portal that turned him into a girl, but that was crazy. Hyde ran away. He didn’t jump through a warped time portal, no matter how cool that would be.

He must’ve been looking at her for a long time without answering because she decided to talk for him.

“Hey, is this the Forman’s residence?”

“Yes?” He answered as if it was a question. He wasn’t sure if it wasn’t or not.

“Oh. Are you sure? Because you seem a lot younger than who I’m looking for.”

“You must mean my parents; they moved a while ago. Can I ask your name?”

She pulled her hand out of her back pocket and held it out for him to shake. He grabbed her hand before she introduced herself and Eric felt his whole world turn upside down.

“Stevie, Stevie Hyde.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think you can tell where I am going with this. This is just a prologue, and will get better I swear. Also comments are heavily encouraged and highly appreciated thank you.


	2. Nice to meet you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stevie meets some friends from her parents childhood. Jackie gets some alarming news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of the longest chapters I've ever written, most will be shorter, just fyi.

**Mid December 1995**

_“Stevie, Stevie Hyde.”_

And just like that Eric’s brain shut down. He had no clue what was going on. The kid was no younger than 15 and yet Hyde couldn’t have a kid that old, Right? So, who was standing on his front porch?

“Honey? Who is it?” He heard Donna yell from the couch, but how could he respond. His brain wasn’t catching up with his mouth, so he just mumbled something incoherent. Which of course brought his wife to his side.

“Woah.” She drawled out.

The girl was still standing in front of them with an amused yet nervous expression on her face. “Look, I’m sorry to have bothered you, but if I could have your parents number, address, some way to contact them, that’d be great.”

Donna looked at the girl with confused apprehension and slowly turned to her husband. “Eric? Who’s this?”

“Oh sorry.” She put her hand in front of her to be shook again. “Stevie.”

The confusion on Donna’s face worsened and she looked to Eric again, who had barely moved from his spot.

“I guess I got you guys at a bad time. I’ll just be on my way this was probably pointless anyways.” Eric watched the girl turn away and started to panic.

“Wait!” She turned back. “Um, Come inside we’ll talk and I can get you my parents number, or address. I’m sorry you just,”

“Look like my dad? Yeah, I get that a lot. Never really caused that reaction though.” He chuckled in a way that was foreign to his own ears and opened the door to let her through. Donna and Eric exchanged glances, neither really knew what was happening.

-

**Early August 1978**

-

Michael was almost back, so was Donna, which meant her, and Hyde were probably over. Which wasn’t good. One she was actually starting to like him, hating herself in the process, how could she start to like the burnout she was using for a good time this summer. That’s all it was supposed to be. She was bored and he was there, and sure she had that obsessive crush on him last year, and she lied about feeling nothing in that kiss, (She was pretty sure he had too, I mean she is Jackie Burkhart after all.) but that was the end of it. Now almost two months into this fling she’s starting to have feelings, and nausea. She’s been nauseous this whole past week, not throwing up, but tired and nauseous and she would’ve ignored it if she hadn’t ignored her missing her period that month. Today she decided to go to the free clinic and get it all squared away, she knew she was probably wrong, Steven was a lot more cautious than Michael had ever been, she was on the pill, (although she did forget to take it a couple days this month) and she was 16. There was no way she was pregnant, there just wasn’t. She wasn’t even in a committed relationship, Steven would run and she’d be left alone, so she just couldn’t it wasn’t an option.

She went to the clinic they gave her this cup to pee in and she gave it back to the nurse. She started laughing to herself. She was an idiot, a paranoid idiot, of course she wasn’t pregnant she didn’t have to go through all of this. She could just leave and forget all about it. She could even confront Steven about her feelings and she’d either have to shut it down or they could live happily ever after.

Still her heart started racing and it became harder to breath when the doctor brought her to a room to discuss her results several hours later.

She was an idiot, just for different reasons than she thought.

-

**Mid December 1995**

-

“So, you knew my dad?” She was confused, her parents didn’t talk about their past a lot but these people seemed absolutely floored by the idea that she was Steven Hyde’s kid. Which never seemed like too much of a surprise, once when she was little they ran into Bud and Edna and they just acted like it made the most sense in the world. 

“Hyde? Yeah, we knew Hyde.” The red head stated. She seemed more articulate than the man sitting beside her, presumably her husband. “We grew up with him. I don’t understand ho-, how old are you?”

“Sixteen. I know, my parents were young when they had me. I wasn’t aware my dad really had close friends growing up. He always told me about the Forman’s though, how they brought him in and took care of him. I knew they had kids I just thought they were younger or out of the house when they took my dad in.”

“Okay, wait I’m still a little confused. We haven’t heard from Hyde in almost 2 decades, and now he just sends his kid?”

“Oh, no! He has no idea I’m here. I wanted to find the Forman’s for Christmas. My dad always seemed so sad when he talked about the way he left things. I thought I could bring them to our Christmas party. I thought it’d be a nice present. I really don’t mean to just barge in here and dredge up the past. I just know it’d mean a lot to my parents; I was hoping it might mean a lot to yours as well.”

“And your mom is?”

“I don’t even know if you’d know her. She’s even more secretive about her past, plus I don’t think my parents knew each other very well before having me. They didn’t even get married till I was three, so.”

“Wow! I just, I mean Wow!” The man to the ladies left said, it was the first time he’d spoken since inviting her inside. He was waving his hands and stood up to start pacing. “So Hyde runs off to god knows where gets some random chick pregnant, has a kid, gets married, and _never_ gives us a phone call? I mean I thought we were brother’s and yet, I just, wow!”

“Sorry about him, he’s processing. Have you had anything to eat yet? Come on I’ll get you a sandwich or something.” They stood up leaving Eric to rant to an empty room and she was led through a door to the kitchen.

-

**Mid August 1978**

-

Jackie was gone. She had been gone for almost two weeks and Hyde was losing it. He had liked her for a while. Just a small little thing in the back of his mind, he was aware of it, but she had completely wrecked him that summer. He thought that maybe it would be a way to get it out of his system, but she's gone, and she left him with nothing more than a note and a number. He would read it over and over to try and figure out if it was real.

_Dear Steven,_

_I know this must seem a little weird, I don’t know how you felt over this summer or what this really is to you, but I started to develop real feelings for you, and it scared me. It wasn’t like last fall with my weird obsession, it was real. For me at least. Again, I don’t know what it was to you so this all might be stupid, but if you have feelings for me and are willing to commit to me in some way call this number and we can meet up and talk. Please don’t let the others know I told you where to contact me. There’s a lot I need to say to you, and I would much rather do it in person rather than a letter or over the phone._

_Love,_

_Jackie_

She had signed her name with a heart over the _i_ like she normally did, and it had a number at the bottom of the page. It was so short and impersonal. From what he could tell about the others theirs were all much longer, some spanning pages, and he only got a short paragraph, but he also got a way to contact her, though. Was she expecting him to? He hadn’t let anyone know that he had a way to contact her like she asked, but he still hadn’t called her, it was freaking him out. Why would she run away and only give her a number? Sure, they had been fooling around, and maybe had feelings for each other, but even so they weren’t that close. Maybe she was testing them, gave them all her number and was trying to see who would spill first.

Whatever. It didn’t matter. What mattered right now was that he was high alone and mulling over the all too short letter he had from her. Before he could reason himself away he picked up the phone and dialed.

It was late he realized and decided to hang up and try again in the morning when he had his wits about him, but someone picked up before he could.

“Steven?”

“Jackie?”

-

**Mid December 1995**

-

For the first time since stepping in the door the girl, Stevie, had taken off her glasses. Her eyes weren’t blue like Hyde’s but a deep green. “I guess you get your eyes from your mom?” Donna asked as she set a glass of juice down in front of the girl and started pulling out ingredients to make a sandwich.

“Yeah, I think my mom was always a little sad me and none of my brothers got blue eyes like my dad. I don't think I got your name?”

“Donna, my husband in there is Eric." She nodded. "You have siblings?”

“Yeah, eight and almost twelve. I’m the only girl.” She handed the sandwich to her and watched her eat. It was surreal how much she looked like Hyde, sounded like him too. “We all got my dad’s hair, though I look the most like him. It’s funny, when my mom had me they both, my parents, were expecting me to look just like her, and my brother’s just like my dad, we all kinda look like him but my brothers they got her coloring.” She talks a lot more than Hyde does though.

“What are your brother’s names?”

“RJ, and Wes. My mom and I were both obsessed with the Princess bride and he was born a month after it came out, so.”

“And you’re named after your dad?”

“Yup. Stefanie Kathleen Hyde. My dad didn’t like it at first, but I guess it grew on him, though if anyone asks I’m named after Stevie Nicks.”

“You’re just like your dad you know?”

She dropped her head and there was a faint blush. “Thanks.” Then she took a bite of her sandwich.

"Better conversationalist though."

-

**Mid August 1978**

-

It was almost midnight and she was asleep when she heard the phone ring. She had run off to her aunts house. She was rarely home, but she kept the pantry stocked, and she had offered her house if she needed it. The best part about it was that no one knew the number to the house, so if someone was calling?

“Steven?”

“Jackie?”

“Hey.” She said meekly. She was still tired and still a little afraid that he didn’t want her, or everyone was gathered around the phone at the Forman’s but it was good to hear from him, it meant something.

“Jackie, what’s going on? Why did you leave?” He seemed worried but his voice was weird, slow, like he was focusing a little too hard on what he was saying.

“Steven, are you high?”

“Yeah, doll, when am I not. Now stop deflecting.”

“Look I can’t tell you over the phone, or when you’re high, but call me tomorrow morning. I’ll pick up and we can talk about meeting each other somewhere. Just, I need to know why you’re calling.”

“Cause I’m worried, Jacks. I care about you and I’m not in the right frame of mind, so my judgement is a little off, but mostly, I miss you.” He’s worried, he cares, he misses her. Those are all good signs, he has to like her back somewhat which means good things for the future. Hopefully. Maybe.

“Good. Just call back in the morning, please. Whether your better judgment tells you it’s a good idea or not.”

“Okay, doll.” She smiled at the nickname. “I’ve got to go I should probably sleep this off.”

“Okay, good night Steven.”

“Good night, and I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

“Thank you.”

He called the next day and they arranged to meet at a Piggly Wiggly about 40 minutes outside of town the day after.

This could be good or bad, but it needed to happen.

-

**Mid December 1995**

-

They had been talking casually when Eric stormed back into his kitchen. “So, your dad is Steven Hyde?”

“Yes.”

“And your parents are married? He's in your life?”

“Yes.”

“Call him!”

“What?”

“You heard me call him!”

“Uh uh, nope. He thinks I’m at Sarah’s place. I’m not telling him I drove the EL Camino three hours to his old friend’s house cause I wanted to bring back his pseudo parents. Do you think I’m crazy?”

“He’s only three hours away? Wait, he gave you the El Camino?”

“Yeah, said as long as I take care of it it’s mine. It’s beat up and chugs gas like a mother but its pretty cool.”

“Wait so he’s been only three hours away this whole time?” Donna pitched in, reminding him he needed to get back on track.

“I’m not sure. I know they weren’t very financially stable the first couple years there but when he got a steady job and my mom started her journalism career we stopped bouncing around and then they settled down outside of Chicago.”

“Chicago? Kelso lives there!”

“Who's Kelso? Whatever. Look I probably have to call my mom anyways, let her know I’ll be late for dinner you can talk to her then just, please don’t get me into trouble. Just be cool and try not to mention the fact that I drove out of town alone.”

-

**Mid August 1978**

-

He pulled up to the Piggly Wiggly and sat in his car for a couple minutes. What was he doing? Was she even going to show up? Jesus Christ this was a bad idea. Before he could even open the door to the El Camino he heard a knocking on the window. He turned and there she was, beautiful as always. He rolled the window down and he saw her hesitantly lean closer.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Can we just go through the drive thru and talk in the car I don’t really want strangers to know what’s going on.”

“Uh, sure. Get in.” He watched her through the window and the rear-view mirror and then turned to her when she finally got in. “So, should we get the food first or?”

“I’d normally say no, but I’m kinda starving.”

“Yeah sure.” They went through the drive through and sat in silence for several minutes before anyone said anything.

“So.”

“Sooo.”

“Why’d you leave Jackie?”

“There’s a couple reasons. I didn’t want Michael to constantly hit on me, I didn’t want anyone to judge me or you if we were ever found out, I-“ She took a deep breath and a long sip of her soda. “There’s other things. Daddy’s being looked at by the police, they got a tip about him doing some things and it seems like pretty soon things might go to complete shit.”

“Jackie-“

“I’m not done, and this is the main reason. This is the reason I needed to make sure you felt at least _something_ for me before I told you because this could send you running, and I can’t deal with that right now. And I know who you are, I know the type of person you are so I might be worrying about nothing or maybe they are all completely valid assumptions and I really should be worried, but” Her voice started to break and there were tears in her eyes. Hyde didn’t know what was going on, but he pulled her into his arms over the food and held her.

“Jacks, you don’t need to say anything you don’t want to okay?” She pulled away, tears still in her eyes, but now she was holding her own better.

“No, I need to say this, cause if I don’t you’ll hate me forever. I mean you probably will after I say this.” He pulled his glasses off and let her look into his eyes. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I’m pregnant.”

He completely froze.

-

**Mid December 1995**

-

She knew she probably shouldn’t, she should just call Sarah and have her pretend to be her mom. The past always brought up old wounds for her parents, closed them off and gave them this weird look in their eye, but lying would just make it worse. So, she walked over to the phone they had on the counter and dialed her home phone and took a deep breath before it started ringing.

“Hyde residence, RJ speaking.”

“Hey, can you put mom on the phone.” She heard him grown and then muffled yelling. While she turned to smile at her hosts.

“Hey sweetie.” Her moms voice rang in her ears.

“Hey mom.” She instantly regretted the cheery tone she said it in. Immediately knowing it was setting off alarm bells in her mother.

“What did you do?” She growled.

Man, she was screwed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this is engaging most of you, I'm trying to establish several things and I know that can get tedious after a while. Next chapter is mostly gonna be set in the 70s. Comment! Comment! Comment! Please!!! Thank you!


	3. Decisions.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hyde needs to decide some things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay it's 4 am and i've been on a roll all night this will probably get some revisions tomorrow. Anyways, enjoy

**Mid August 1978**

-

He didn’t know how long he had sat in the car just staring at her, he had no clue if he even heard her right. He couldn’t have, he was always safe, doubly safe, this can’t be happening. “You’re pregnant?” She just looked at him, and he knew. She wasn’t lying this wasn’t some trick, she was pregnant. “I hate to do this, but I have to.”

“It’s yours. Don’t even ask if it’s not, it’s yours. I’ve only been with you and Michael, I haven’t been with Michael in over three months. I’ve only missed my last period, there’s no way it can be anyone else’s.”

“But, you’ve just missed your period?” It’s fine this has happened before, she got scared and overreacted it’s fine.

“No, I didn’t freak out when it was just my period. I thought it was stress or something else I don’t know. Do you really think I would cut everyone off except you if I didn’t know for sure?” He didn’t say anything, couldn’t say anything. Her eyes were still filled with tears but her voice was strong. “Look I’ve been through all the stages too but over a much more extended period of time, and I’d really like you to skip the denial so we can actually talk about this.”

He ran a hand over his face and let out a shaky breath. “Just give me a minute. I mean how can you be sure?”

“Like I said I didn’t overreact when it was just my period, but some things started to happen, I was getting nauseous regularly throughout the day, I was overly tired, and I started to panic. So, I went to the free clinic a few days before Donna and Kelso got back. They confirmed it. I went to the doctor about a week ago, my aunt paid for it, that’s where I’m staying, my aunts. They did this thing called an ultrasound, they could tell how far along I am.” Hyde’s eyes went wide, this was all too real, he didn’t know how to deal with it. “I’m about 9 weeks by the way. 6 when I found out.”

“This is real.”

“Yeah, it is. And look I understand if you aren’t ready. I mean I’m not, but I can’t not have this kid, you know, and I’m not going to force you into anything okay? It’s just, we both didn’t have the best parents, and I know personally I just want to make sure they know they’re loved. We don’t have to be together or anything, you don’t even have to be apart of his or her life I just know that I can’t have my kid in an environment where even one of the parents is only half there. So, you’re either in this or not.”

A million thoughts were running through his head. The main one being how, but something she said caught in his brain.

“You think I’d want to ditch my kid?”

“God, no! Steven, No! I swear that’s not what I meant. It’s just I’m giving you a choice, you can either be in this kids life or not, and that doesn’t mean I think you’re gonna bail.” His hands were curling into fists and his jaw was clenched.

“What were you going to do if I hadn’t called huh? Just keep it from me?”

“I hadn’t really thought that far.”

“Jeez Jackie what the hell!” He knew it made sense and he probably shouldn’t be this angry, but he couldn’t help it.

“Look, let me start over okay? Just, please.” She put her hand over his fist and tried to get him to look at her. “I like you. Which is a lot more complicated now than it was before, but I _like_ you, and if you decide you want to be in this kid’s life _before_ it’s born, and if you like me too, I want to try this. Us. Cause I want my kid to know what it’s like to have two loving and in love parents. Not saying I’m in love with you! But it _could_ happen. For me. And I just. I don’t want our kid to have to deal with the crap we did or even Donna when her parents split, but I’m not forcing you into anything. If you want to be in this kids life and give us a genuine chance I’ll be okay with it just like if you stay for the kid but not for me. Even if you decide you don’t want to be in this kid’s life, not saying you don’t, just that though I probably wouldn’t be exactly okay with it I’d understand.”

“So, what I stay, and we try to hit it off while you’re having my kid and we’re flat broke how do you think that’ll work? Would I run away too, would I come up on weekends not letting anyone know what I was doing till I graduate? Fuck Jackie!”

“I don’t know, but I’m giving you some time. Not all the time in the world, but you need to think about what you want to do. You have my number, and” She pulled out a pen and wrote down an address on one of the napkins. “This is where I’m staying. Let me know what you decide, I’ll keep my eye on the phone. I am working part-time so if you don’t get me call again every hour till I do. My aunt’s not home a lot so it shouldn’t bother her. We can try and figure out a plan before you make a final decision.”

“Wait where is this?”

“Illinois near the border.”

“You drove here from Illinois alone?”

“I’m fine Steven. I’ve got to learn to be a big girl now.” She opened her door and laid a feather light kiss on the corner of his mouth. Before leaving.

-

**Late August 1978**

-

She told him to think about it. As if that weren’t all he would think about. He was having a kid with Jackie Burkhart. Jackie Freaking Burkhart. It was supposed to be fun and simple and a way to get her out of his system. Then it became actual feelings and now it’s resulted in a human who in just a couple of months would be completely reliant on him and fucking Jackie.

There was no way he could abandon his kid. No fucking way. His parents fucked him up and he knows he’d never want that to happen to his kid.

His Kid. Jesus Christ.

How was he supposed to do this? He had no money, all he had was the El Camino and a couple t-shirts. There was no way he could financially support Jackie, himself, and a baby. Jackie knew fuck all about being broke. You needed to learn how to ration, thrift, shoplift if needed.

Not to mention she seems to want to _be_ with him. Not just raise a kid, but actually be with him. How could he do that. He’s never had a stable relationship in his life. It’s flings and meaningless hookups and random dates. He had no clue what to do.

He wished he knew what to do. Wished his gut instinct wasn’t to run and flip and destroy everything he’s ever known. But one night, while he was laying in bed rereading Jackie’s letter for the billionth time it clicked. That’s exactly what he needed to do. Cut everyone off. So, he prepared. He saved every scrap bill he could find, started walking everywhere to save gas money, sold his stash, and prepared.

This time he wasn’t running from something, he was running to something, and as long as he had somewhere to be, someone who counted on him he was okay with it.

-

**Mid September 1978**

-

Hyde had decided a little over two weeks ago, he was staying. He wanted to try with both her and the kid. He had started saving up and looking at jobs near her aunt’s house and he had shown up a week ago with bags in hand and the El Camino in the drive. He got a job at an auto parts shop and a fast-food place and spent all of his free time with Jackie. Hyde refused to not pay rent when staying at her aunt’s house so when he did her aunt handed it right back to Jackie or added to the groceries fund. Life wasn’t great, especially for Jackie, but it was better than they had expected it to be.

-

**Mid December 1995**

-

“What did you do?” She growled.

She knew her daughter very well. She was trying to cover her tracks. Act nice so what she did didn’t seem as bad as it was. It worked on her husband. On her, not so much.

“Well, it’s not as bad as you think. Okay, so you remember how I wanted to get something special for dad for Christmas?”

“Uh huh.”

“And you gave me this box of all your guys’ old sentimental crap?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I found this old letter he wrote. To the Forman’s?”

“Stefanie. If you don’t tell me what you did right now I swear to god!”

“The letter had an address and I decided to drive up here this morning to invite them to our Christmas party.”

“Stevie! Oh my god! That’s three hours in the snow! They probably don’t even live there anymore! Jesus! Just stay put I’m coming to get you.”

“No! Mom you do-“

She hung up before her daughter could protest further, handed her sons off to the neighbor and drove her way back to a place she thought she’d put behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay let me know what you think I'll see y'all later.


	4. Revelations.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jackie comes back to point place for the first time in years.

**Mid December 1995**

-

_“No mom! You do-“_

Her mom hung up on her. Great. Now what was she supposed to tell the people giving her odd looks.

“Did she just hang up on you?”

“Yeah, She’s on her way.”

“Like here? How does she know our address?”

“Probably took that letter. Knowing my mom she’d probably bang on every door in Point Place if it meant finding me.”

“She’s pissed huh?”

Before she could respond three kids came running through the sliding glass door with a bulky tan man walking behind them. When he spoke, he had a thick accent.

“God your children are the worst. They get so hyper when you feed them candy.” When he noticed Stevie leaning against the counter. He turned back to them and let out a breathy laugh. “It’s like a female Hyde!”

“It is in a way.” Eric replied before Donna smacked the back of his head.

“Wait what is going on?” Stevie reached to put on her sunglasses and then walked over to introduce herself.

“Hi, my names Stevie.” She held out her hand and he shook it along with an inquisitive look.

“Wait, did Hyde go through a time machine that turned him into a girl?”

“That’s what I thought!” Donna moved to smack the backs of both their heads.

“Uh no, Hyde’s my dad.”

“No, Hyde can’t have a teenager. He just can’t. If he had a kid after he ran away he would’ve called us.”

“Well, my mom’s on her way to kick my ass if you want to interrogate her. Don’t really know much about my parents before I was born.”

One of the kids the youngest out of the three ran back into the room and hid behind the accented man. She was tanner and had dark brown hair, it was obvious she was this man’s daughter as opposed to the other two. She bent down to say hi.

“Hi, my names Stevie. What’s yours?”

“Amanda.” She said quietly.

“How old are you Amanda?”

“Six!” She held up six fingers and smiled wide stepping out from behind her dad. “And this is my Daddy!”

“Is it!” She turned to the man. “And what’s his name.”

“Fez.”

“The fuck kinda name is that?”

“Language!” All three adults in the room shouted.

“Sorry.”

“Hey, Amanda, I have a little brother that’s a little older than you did you know that?”

“No.”

“Yeah and you know what he loves?” Her eyes got big, and she started grinning.

“What?”

“Tickle Fights!” She pulled the girl towards her and started tickling her sides causing Amanda to squirm and giggle and try to tickle her back. After a couple seconds she stopped and started sitting on a chair next to the table behind her.

“Daddy Stevie’s fun! Imma go get my cousins and bring them to her!”

“Okay, Sweetie.” They watched the little girl run through the door and then Fez turned back to her. “So Hyde really has a kid?”

“Three.” Donna chipped in behind the counter. “And her moms on her way right now, so, I’m thinking we call up Kelso and have the whole gang back to meet Hyde’s wife. Yeah I’m gonna do that.” She grabbed the phone of the hook and walked into the living room.

“I didn’t realize this was gonna be such a thing. To be honest I thought my dad had no friends before he ran away. I mean neither of my parents really talk about anything that happened before I was born, all I know is that Mr. and Mrs. Forman took him in when his mom bailed. He used to always tell me if I had a friend that needed help to always go to him and he’d do everything he could, no matter the position we were in.”

“Your dad’s a good dad?”

“He’s the best. That’s why I wanted to get the Forman’s back.”

“Oh, right I should call my mom after she gets off the phone with Kelso.”

“You all have some weird name’s you know that?”

“It’s his last name.”

“Whatever.”

-

**Early March 1979**

-

She had been in labor for hours, she didn’t know how she hadn’t passed out yet. Either from pain, or sheer exhaustion. Steven was standing next to her holding her hand. He was whispering kind words while she laid back and let her almost break his hand when she had a contraction.

“Almost there.” The doctor had said. “Okay the heads out, one more push. And there we go.” She wasn’t crying immediately, and Jackie started to panic.

“What’s going on? Is the baby okay?”

“She’s fine. She’s absolutely fine.”

“She?” She looked up at Steven whose eyes were fixated across the room.

“She’s gorgeous Doll.”

“We have a girl?” He nodded and slowly turned to look at her and smiled.

They handed her a small bundle and she held her gingerly. “Does she have a name?”

“Not yet.”

As they looked at their daughter everything in the world seemed to fade away. They looked back at each other and Steven gave her a soft kiss before resting his forehead against hers.

“I love you, Jackie.”

“I love you too, Steven.”

It was several hours later they were in a different room and Hyde was holding his daughter while Jackie took a nap. She was perfect and amazing and everything. Across the room Jackie stirred and slowly opened her eyes. “How is she?”

“Awesome. She needs a name though.”

“You know I’m named after my dad.”

“Yeah.” He still hadn’t looked up from the bundle in his arms.

“I was thinking we could name her after you.”

“What you want our daughter to be named Heidi?” He finally looked over to Jackie.

“You really think I’d name my daughter Heidi Hyde?”

“Her last names gonna be Hyde?”

“Of course, what else would it be?”

“We just never really talked about it I just assumed you’d want her to be a Burkhart.”

“Look at her. She’s a Hyde all the way.” She motioned to the little girls mop of light curly hair. “Now back on topic. Stefanie. I think it’s a good name and it suits her. We could call her Annie for short.”

“You really think I’m gonna let my kid be named after little orphan Annie?”

“We’ll figure something out. What do you think?”

“I don’t know. I’ve hated my name my entire life. She shouldn’t be named after a loser dropout.”

“She wouldn’t be named after a loser dropout; she’d be named after her Daddy. Who she loves and will look up to.”

“Stevie.”

“What?”

“If we name her Stefanie, we should call her Stevie.”

“So, she has a name?”

“Stefanie Kathleen Hyde. After Kitty.”

She smiled at him and then reached out to hold her daughter. Her daughter. God, she was a mom. "I wish she was here."

"Who? Kitty?"

"She was the best mom I knew."

"Me too. I wish they were all here too."

She looked down at the little bundle in her arms and smiled. She won't mess this up.

-

**Mid December 1995**

-

It had been almost three hours since she got off the phone with her mom. Obeying traffic laws her mom would be here in the next twenty minutes. She had been entertaining the kids while their parents talked when she heard a car screeching to a halt. Which was either her mom or the guy that Donna called earlier. She was praying it was the guy when she went outside to see her mom looking in the El Camino and then angrily around only to let out a sigh of relief when she saw her. She gave her a shy smile and then was quickly enveloped in her mom’s arms. Which was awkward. She had grown past her mom’s height last year, but her mom still tried to hug her like she was much smaller. When her mom pulled back she took her face in her hands and looked directly into her eyes.

“Never do that again. You scared the crap out of me. We have no clue who lives here anymore. They could’ve been sick deranged people. You were driving on the freeway in icy weather which you know scares me, to a place you’ve never been before, that’s hours away. I should smack you upside the head. But I’m just going to hug you, cause you seem okay.”

“Mom.” She whined. She heard the sliding glass door open and several people come out.

“Jackie?”

A car came barreling down the driveway and narrowly missed the people standing in it. A tall man jumped out of th car and almost faceplanted in the process. “Hyde’s Alive? And married? What’s going on? Jackie?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I'm really loving all of these responses. Thank You! for commenting and please keep doing so, I try to reply to all of them. Also another cliffhanger I know y'all hate me but I'm on a roll with this story so it shouldn't be too long before I post the next chapter. and a few things. Right now I'm going to be jumping around in the past to establish some things, so it will probably not all be linear in the flashbacks it will probably jump around from Jackie's pregnancy to Stevie being a kid and so on and so forth, just for future reference.


	5. Reunions.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jackie has to tell her old friends what happened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay really long one again.

**Mid September 1978**

-

Eric was rummaging through what was left of Hyde’s things at a loss for words. Almost everything was gone. His stash, 90% of his clothes, he had folded up the cot and set it against his dresser. An empty dresser. All of his albums were gone, and most of his posters. It was neat and tidy, not like someone that decided to run and packed everything up in a hurry. This had taken days of work. It was like he wasn’t even here and all the crap he left was just apart of the rest of the junk that’s been there since he was a kid.

“Hyde! You owe me ten bucks! I told you Pam Macy was still into me!” Kelso called into the basement.

“He’s not here Kelso.” He said coming out of the back room.

“Oh, I’ll wait. I really need that ten bucks.”

“No, Kelso. He’s gone. Left a note packed all his stuff, gone.”

“What do you mean?”

Donna stormed in slamming the door behind her. “Hyde’s gone too?” She yelled. Eric nodded. Kelso looked between them like they were crazy.

“I doubt Hyde left for good, he probably just went out of town for the week. He wouldn’t just ditch us.” Kelso tried to reason.

“Nah man. He took his stash, all of it.”

“Well maybe he was low?”

They waited a week, he never came back. They were sitting in the circle for the first time since he left.

“Man. It’s just not the same.”

“I know right it’s like somethings missing.”

“And this is shit. Where’d you get it Donna?”

“My Dad doesn’t know how to hide shit. But this is probably stale. Fuck.”

They tried looking but no one knew where to start. A week slowly turned to a month and a month turned into a year, and pretty soon they would just reminisce on times with Hyde, on occasion even Jackie. They would throw out some theories about what they were doing, where they were, but nothing was ever taken seriously. “Maybe he ran away to be with Jackie.” Eric threw out one time immediately getting ragged on for being an idiot. They hated each other. They just so happened to leave at similar times, but nothing was ever discounted either. Eventually they grew apart and had families of their own. Kelso knocked a girl up a few months after they graduated, ended up falling in love with her. Donna and Eric got married when they were 21, after Donna graduated, welcoming their first kid two years later and their second a year after that. Fez started working at a hair salon and met the love of his life, marrying her and having a daughter. Life was good, and soon Hyde and Jackie were just a distant bittersweet memory.

-

**Mid December 1995**

-

_“Hyde’s alive? And married? What’s going on? Jackie?”_ She was cornered. There were a few things she was terrified in her life. Losing her kids. Losing Steven. Clowns. And running into people from before her new life. Now, she had to deal with one of her worst nightmares.

She had changed a lot from the person these people knew, she’s no longer materialistic, she worries less about herself and more about the people she cares about, and she no longer cares what people think of her. She had to give that up when she was a teen mom living paycheck to paycheck. She no longer worries about what her old friends are going to think of her getting pregnant at 16 or had a kid at 17. She doesn’t care what they’re going to think of her loving marrying and having a life with the burnout. She doesn’t care what they think about her anymore, but she’s always cared _for_ them and missed them, and now that they know the truth they’ll probably hate her.

“Mom? What’s going on? They know you too.” Too bad she’s a mom now and her kids needs come first.

“Yeah baby. Now I’m going to say a cuss word and I want you to know that this does not change our rules about using foul language in the house and does not mean you’re allowed to cuss around me. Okay?” Stevie gave her a confused look before Jackie covered the girl’s ears and screamed. “FUCK!” She let out a breath and gathered herself. Smiling. “Hey guys.”

“What the fuck.” Donna breathed out. “WHAT THE FUCK!”

“Um, I don’t know what’s going on so, I’m gonna go inside and watch the kids. Cool?” No one acknowledged Stevie. “Okay, cool.” Jackie watched her daughter walk inside, the confused face never leaving her, before turning her gaze back to Donna’s then Eric’s then Fez and lastly she turned to Kelso. Who looked just as confused as Stevie had.

“You are- I mean you- I- Wait you’re her mom?” Jackie swallowed the lump in her throat. This was even harder than she’d expected it to be.

“I was right.” Eric whispered to himself. “I was right? I was right!” He finally landed on and pumped his fist in the air and started pointing to all his friends. “You all called me an idiot, but I WAS RIGHT! How the hell was I right?”

“I just got here so I’m a little lost. Who was that? Why is Jackie here?”

“That was Stevie. Hyde’s daughter. Jackie is her mom. Which makes her-“

“Steven’s wife.” Jackie finished for her. It was the first time she had addressed anyone other than her daughter since showing up in Point Place.

“But that’s impossible, cause you two hated each other.”

“Not really, I mean we had playful banter and maybe were resentful of each other’s presence sometimes, but I never hated him.”

“You always ran into _his_ arms when you needed consoling.” Kelso realized.

“He took you to prom.” Eric.

“You went on that date on Veteran’s day.” Fez.

“Oh my god! You guys cheated on Kelso! How the hell could you!” It was an understandable conclusion. They talked about their earlier relationship throughout the years and if they both hadn’t had their reputations to uphold they might’ve realized or acted on their feelings earlier, but the accusation stung. Especially coming from Donna.

“Oh, shut the hell up! One, we never EVER did anything until Kelso and I were over. Second, you never gave the same consideration to me. Kelso cheated on me dozens of times and you never gave a damn. You let him sleep with Laurie _for months_ and never told me. None of you did! So just SHUT THE HELL UP!”

Donna had the decency to look remorseful. Each of them had some look of regret on their face. Good. They deserved to feel bad about themselves.

“Now, I just drove three hours up here after an already long day so can you give me a minute to collect my thoughts, please, and I need to go explain some things to my daughter. We’ll talk after I do that.” She walked past them back into the house she once considered a second home and found her daughter on the couch playing cards with three young children. “Stevie?”

“Yeah mom?” She looked up from her playing cards to see her mom, she was holding up a strong front, but you could see she was freaking out when you looked at her eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, can we talk?”

“Sure, one sec.” She set her cards down and looked the kids in the eye. “No, cheating. I’ll be back.” She made sure to give them an exaggerated glare before. She stood up and followed her mom down the stairs.

They walked down to the basement. It was the place she knew best in the house. It looked different. The set up was the same, but there were boxes everywhere and everything had a layer of dust. It looked less like a hangout space and more like an unused basement. There was still a lingering smell of weed but it was nowhere near as bad as it used to be, it was seeped into the walls, a testament to what the basement used to be.

“Why does it smell kinda like weed in here?”

“Why do you know what that smells like?”

“Okay, new question.” She pulled her aviators off and set them on a box near the couch. “How do they know you? I thought you and Dad met after you ran away?”

“You just assumed that, and we let you, we’ve actually known each other most of our lives. We didn’t get along that well though.”

“So, you were a part of the same friend group?”

“Not really. We knew each other when we were kids and I started dating this guy Michael Kelso my freshman year. He was your dad’s best friend.”

“The tall guy?”

“Yeah, him. Anyways some things happened and we broke up and then one summer Steven and I got together. Which led to you. Which you know. But I was already pregnant when I ran away, which I never actually told you, which I should have, and your dad followed.”

“So, I’m the reason you and dad lost all your friends?”

“No! There were a lot of reasons that led to me running away. Yes, you were a big reason, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I love you and your brothers and your dad and that’s all that matters. If I had made different decisions I would have a different life and I _love_ my life.”

“You never know what the future holds.”

“Exactly. Now I need to go talk to the adults, keep the kids occupied?”

“Sure.”

She let Stevie stay behind for a minute knowing she most likely needs to be alone before going back up, and she steeled herself for the next conversation to be had.

When she made her way up the stairs she was met with the sight of her four old friends sitting at the table whispering to each other. It transported her back to when she was a teenager. God how much everyone’s changed. She walked into their line of sight and took a seat.

“So, where do you want me to start?”

-

**Late December 1978**

-

It was their first Christmas together. They had decided to do small homemade or sentimental gifts this year and spend most of their present money on the baby. Jackie was nearing the start of her third trimester which meant they needed to prepare for the kid to come. They each got one present for the other and a present for Jackie’s aunt, and spent most of the night watching Christmas movies with Jackie curled up under Hyde’s arm.

“I thought I saw Eric at the store the other day.” Jackie said randomly while watching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ “It wasn’t him but I nearly freaked. I mean, I’m huge. There was no way for me to explain it away if it was him.”

“You aren’t huge Jackie.”

“You’re missing the point. What do we do if we run into any of them? Chances are over time they’re going to spread out. What would we do?”

“We tell the truth, we let them know exactly what happened, and not give a damn what anyone thinks. Okay?” He squeezed her shoulder tighter.

“Yeah, okay.”

-

**Mid December 1995**

-

Everyone looked up at her about to say something when Stevie came back into the kitchen. She was about to walk back into the living room before she stopped and turned around. “Mom, where’s RJ and Wes?”

“The Callahan’s. Why?”

“Should I call dad? So he doesn’t come home to a empty house and panic or?”

“Yeah call his work, if he’s not there leave a message at home.”

She nodded and walked through the door.

“Sorry. Um I don’t really know where to start so.”

“When did you and Hyde start?”

“I’m not sure. A few weeks after Michael and Donna skipped town we were bored, started fooling around, which led to more pretty quickly. I started to really like him, and things were good we hadn’t really talked about what we were or what things meant to us yet, but things seemed fine. We didn't officially start dating until we were already gone. But before then everything kinda went crazy. The cops started pulling records from my dad’s office, and Eric went to go get you guys back from California, and I found out I was pregnant with Stevie, and I freaked out. I don’t know exactly what the catalyst was that drove me to skip town, but I did, and I gave you all those letters. Steven’s had a phone number to contact me. He didn’t know I was pregnant when I left. I was still processing, and I was scared so I left him with my aunt’s number, and we planned to meet up and I told him. After that he decided he needed to leave too. He started saving up and sold his stash, some of his posters, got the money he could. My aunt was helping us out as well and we both got jobs, it wasn’t easy, but we got by.”

“You were pregnant when you left? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wasn’t even ready to tell Steven yet. Do you really think I’d tell the girl I thought was my best friend that ran off to California with the boy I thought I was going to marry?”

“But none of this explains how you two got together. Sure, you had a kid and a fling, that doesn’t seem like the perfect recipe for marriage.”

“It wasn’t. It took us a long time to get to a point where we could trust each other enough to really communicate, but we both wanted a stable environment for our kid, and we both knew that if we tried we could love each other. We didn’t want our kid to grow up with parents who were constantly fighting or never there, but we also didn’t want us having a kid to ruin something that we knew could be great.” No one was really saying anything, but they all had tense expressions on their faces. “I don’t expect you guys to understand. I mean, I barely do. But I do know that if I could go back I would do the exact same thing, because I really like my life. It’s not what I expected it to be at 16 but it’s good. I have a good job Steven owns a music store by our house. My kids are perfect, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

“You never thought to call us? Write anything?”

“Of course we did. Every milestone we had had us itching for the phone, but we were scared. We didn’t know how everyone would react. I didn’t want anyone in point place to know I had a kid so young, when I was unmarried, and hadn’t even had a real boyfriend when I found out I was pregnant. My dad was in prison. There was just too much that could happen and eventually we made new friends and you guys had your own lives and it just was easier to move on. We did write a letter, when Stevie was born, we were going to send it to Mr. and Mrs. Forman. Let them know we were okay and had a daughter, but we never got the courage to send it.” By the end tears were forming in her eyes and she was staring intently at her manicured nails. She couldn’t find the courage to look back up at them. She wiped at her eyes and then tried to get focused on another topic. “Um, how are you guys though? What’s happened in your lives? How are Red and Kitty?”

“They both retired, got a smaller house, closer to the water so Red could fish, they’re down near Racine.”

“Wow, they live closer to us than they do you.”

“Yeah, Stevie told us you live in Evanston?”

They continued to talk like that, catching up. There was still tension in the air but they collectively decided to ignore it. Eventually the kids came back in and Jackie met them all.

-

**Mid December 1995, Evanston.**

-

Hyde had just put down the phone. Jackie had to go help their daughter with something and their sons were being watched by their next-door neighbors. He was about to hand off the store to his employee when the bell rang alerting him to a new customer. He turned around and was met with the faces of two people he’s known most of his life.

“Steven?”

“Red? Kitty?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another cliffhanger, sorry. Thank you for all the comments this is getting a lot of positive attention so thank you! Please keep commenting it makes me happy seeing them all. Also the T70S timeline is all screwy I think we're all aware of that so i'm going to create a small timeline right her for any possible confusion. I also messed up and made it 1978 when it should've started in 1977, but we're just gonna ignore that like the original writers did.  
> May1978  
> 20th  
> Donna and Kelso skip town.
> 
> June1978  
> 2nd  
> Jackie and Hyde start hooking up  
> 28th  
> Jackie gets pregnant
> 
> August 1978  
> 8th  
> Jackie finds out she's pregnant  
> 12th  
> Donna and Kelso come home  
> 13th  
> Jackie runs away
> 
> September1978  
> 2nd  
> Hyde finds out  
> 14th  
> Hyde runs away
> 
> March1979  
> 10th  
> Stevie is born 2 and a half weeks early
> 
> After that specific dates aren't extremely important so I'll just give a general guide.
> 
> May1979  
> Point place gang graduates.  
> Red still has a heart attack.  
> Jackie and Hyde try to find an apartment together.
> 
> June1979  
> Kelso finds out Brooke's pregnant.  
> Donna goes to college.  
> Eric stays home.  
> Eric and Donna decide that they'll break up, but will get back together if they both want to after Donna graduates.
> 
> January1980  
> Betsy is born.  
> Eric moves to the same town as Donna's college. Tries to get her back.  
> Fez starts working at a beauty parlor.
> 
> February1980  
> Michael moves to Chicago to be closer to Betsy.  
> Eric and Donna officially get back together.
> 
> March1980  
> Stevie has her first birthday.  
> Hyde gets a job at a record store.  
> Jackie works towards getting her GED.  
> Michael tries a relationship with Brooke.
> 
> 1981  
> Hyde and Jackie become good friends with the owner of the store where Hyde works.  
> Jackie gets her GED and starts working at a magazine company as a secretary.  
> Michael and Brooke move in together, as does Donna and Eric.  
> Michael starts at the police academy.
> 
> 1982  
> Hyde proposes, Jackie and Hyde get married.  
> Eric proposes, they plan the wedding for after Donna's graduation.  
> Fez meets a woman at work and develops a crush on her.  
> Jackie gets a promotion and starts writing articles.
> 
> 1983  
> Donna graduates and marries Eric.  
> Donna starts working at a publishing company that specializes in feminist literature.  
> Hyde and Jackie are mostly stable financially and buy a small three bedroom house and start trying for another kid.  
> Fez finally asks out the girl at work.  
> Red and Kitty retire.
> 
> 1984  
> Hyde and Jackie have a baby boy.  
> Eric and Donna start trying for a kid.  
> 1985  
> Eric and Donna have their first kid.  
> Red and Kitty give Eric and Donna their house and move.  
> Fez proposes.  
> Steven and Jackie try for another kid.
> 
> 1986  
> Eric and Donna have another kid.  
> Hyde takes over the record store.  
> Fez gets married.
> 
> 1987  
> Jackie and Hyde have their last kid.
> 
> 1989  
> Kelso and Brooke elope.  
> Fez has his first and only kid.
> 
> 1995  
> Stevie goes through a box of old stuff and finds a letter addressed to the Formans, decides to find them.
> 
> I hope that makes some sense. There are things I left out simply cause I will add them to the story later, but that should give you a somewhat established timeline and sense of how everything worked out through out the years


	6. Internal battles

**Summer 1978**

-

Eric was right. She was the devil, or some type of demon. She lured you into her trap made you start to care then immediately ripped it away. What the fuck had she done to him. That kiss on Veterans Day he had seen stars, and she felt nothing, and now he actually cared about her. Stupid demon. She stopped obsessing over him went back to Kelso and got her heart broken. Shocker! He ran off to California with Donna after promising to marry her. Idiot doesn’t deserve her. Not like he does either.

Now he was sitting on the couch with her, complaining about how boring the summer was. Hasn’t even been three weeks and it already sucks. Then he looked to her and she was looking at him, and suddenly they were kissing.

It was just like the last time, but different. It was more insistent, less feeling. It was like scratching an itch, when the last time was like getting knocked over the head. But as quick as it started, it ended. They turned back to the tv, didn’t address it. Then again his lips were on hers but this time they didn’t pull away. This time they just kept kissing. She pulled him down on top of her, or he pushed her under him. He wasn’t sure.

They started regularly fooling around. Started sleeping together. Never addressed it. Kept the same indifference when others were around, but the second someone was gone they were back on each other. Neither knew what it really was, just that it couldn’t last. At some point Kelso would be back and they’d pretend it never happened. It was an unspoken agreement.

Forman went to California. Kelso and Donna are coming back. Jackie’s been acting weird, not sure if it’s ‘cause of that or something else. She’s been on him a lot lately, but it’s different. She kisses him like it’s going to be the last time, and maybe it will. She seems desperate for what she can get, but he doesn’t care because he is too.

Jackie left, left everyone a note, left him a number and a confession of _like_. She had dug his claws into him and then left. Devil.

She was pregnant. He was gonna have kid. She was gonna have a kid with someone that doesn’t deserve her. He didn’t know how this was all going to work, he just knew he couldn’t leave his kid. He wouldn’t be Bud. He’d _never_ be Bud.

He hadn’t called her after his decision. Just showed up at the address she gave him.

“Steven!” She ran into his arms and hugged him tight. “You came!”

“Of course I did. Left a note. We are officially runaways Grasshopper.”

She chuckled still holding his chest tight to her face. “You haven’t called me that since you taught me Zen.”

“Really? It fits you. Jumpy, small, annoying.” She pulled back and hit him in the chest.

“Hey!” He smiled in kind and pulled her back.

He didn’t know exactly how everything was going to happen, but it was nice to have her back in his arms. “So, we’re gonna have to set some ground rules. I’m not sure if I want a relationship Jackie. I’ve never done that, but I wanna be there for our kid, and you aren’t the worst.”

“You like me too.” She smiled wide. “We’ll talk about everything tonight, come on let’s get your stuff.”

They spent their day setting up Hyde’s room and talking about nonconsequential things, avoiding any topics that might lead to something serious. Once they were finished putting all of Hyde’s things in the dresser and putting up the posters he had left. They went to go make dinner and sat down at the small table her aunt had to eat at.

“So, we should talk?” Jackie decided to break the silence halfway through the meal.

“Yeah.”

“You should start with what you want. Expect. Because I told you what I want. Now it’s up to you.”

“I know. I just am not sure what I want in this situation. I’ve never had an actual relationship. I don’t do dating. The closest thing I had to that was Chrissy.”

“That bleach blonde whore?” Hyde gave her a look through his sunglasses. “Sorry. Steven I may have been in a relationship before, but it wasn’t exactly stable. Not committed on his part. I’m just as confused as you are. But I like you, the question is do you like me? Enough to try _something._ ”

“Whatever.”

“Don’t give the Zen crap. Look, I am the only one here. No one else is going to know that you actually care about something other than yourself.”

He rolled his eyes, licked his lips. “Yeah Jackie, I like you, okay? But, I don’t think it’s a good idea to try and start a relationship when we’re already in such a hard position. Don’t you think we should focus on trying to grow up instead of worrying about something like that?”

“Trial run.”

“Huh?”

“We’ll do a trial run. We’ll focus on becoming adults, figuring out how to financially support and properly care for a child, but we also will go on dates. Leave it all behind one or two nights a week and try to see if we actually work before the baby comes.”

“So, we’ll just go on dates every once in a while?” It was a sarcastic remark, but Jackie ignored it.

“Yeah. I mean we’ll need to work on our communication better. If it’s not working we’ll stop and just decide to coparent. I don’t think we should fool around, not until we’re sure about eachother.”

“God this is crazy.”

“Yeah, but it might work.” She replied with a smile.

-

**Mid December 1995**

-

Jackie was back. Why was Jackie back? She had held onto her good looks. She was hugging a teenage girl that sorta looked like Hyde. What was going on? And she cussed. She never used to cuss. Like ever. Thought it was unladylike. A lot was going on, the girl had gone inside, Donna looked like she was going crazy, Forman was screaming something about being right, and he was simply confused.

_“I just got here so I’m a little lost. Who was that? Why is Jackie here?”_

_“That was Stevie. Hyde’s daughter.”_ The girl that showed up to find the Forman’s, okay. That doesn’t explain why Jackie is here. _“Jackie is her mom_.” Well that just can’t be right, but she doesn’t deny it. “ _Which makes her”_

_“Steven’s wife.”_ And just like that everything he knew crashed down around him. The first girl he ever loved ran off and got married to _Hyde_. His best friend and his girlfriend. What the fuck.

He was over Jackie, but that doesn’t mean he wanted to know she was so happy with someone else, especially _Hyde_ being that someone else. He had been on auto pilot since then, tuned out everyone’s frustrated and confused mumblings when she went inside, barely registered what she was saying when she was explaining things.

She was pregnant when she left he got. Hyde betrayed him he got. What he didn’t get was how it happened, and what he didn’t get was how everyone just started catching up like it was no big deal. When the kids came in and he officially met Stevie he decided to talk to her. She was a lot like Hyde looked like him, tried to be as aloof as him, kept a similar vocabulary, but she talked. A lot. She also seemed a little uncomfortable around all these new people. When it started snowing she went to go and check on her car and make sure there was nothing that could get damaged in the bed of the Camino.

This might be his chance to get some answers. She is their daughter, so she’s seen more of Jackie’s and Hyde’s relationship than probably anyone else, and she seems to have a no bullshit attitude like Hyde. He needed to know if together they had a shitty relationship. Jackie would never admit it due to her pride, but if her and Hyde fought constantly, or were rude and dismissal towards each other, he wanted to know if they were just together for the kids sake. He wasn’t sure knowing would make him feel better or worse.

She was sitting in her car with the window cracked. He walked up and knocked on it. She looked over and let out a sigh when she saw it was him and not someone else and moved to open her door and get out snuffing out a cigarette as she did.

“Hey kid.”

“Hey, you’re the one with the weird name right? Kessey? Dated my mom?”

“Kelso, yeah. She told you ‘bout that?”

“Just that. I don’t really know anything about my parents apparently.”

“So, how are your parents?”

“Good.”

“Just good?”

“I mean they’re parents, better than most. What do you expect me to say?” She turned to look at him. “Oh! You mean their relationship. Thought you were married?” She gestured to the ring on his finger.

“Yeah I am, I mean Brooke’s awesome, we’ve got a kid, bout a year younger than you. Betsy. She’s great too, smart like her mom.” He took a photo of Betsy and Brooke out of his wallet and handed it to her.

“Your wife’s hot.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I totally scored.”

She handed the photo back to him. “Look I don’t have any answers for you ‘cause I don’t know you, and I don’t know how your relationship with either of my parents went, but, just wait here.” She opened the cab again and crawled in to get something out of the glove box. Bringing a small bunch of polaroid’s held together with a hair tie. “I got a camera for my birthday a couple years ago. This is all my family photos. Maybe they’ll help you understand what you’re looking for.”

“Thanks. You know smoking’s really bad for you.”

“Yeah, but it keeps my head clearer than weed and still helps me calm down. Anyways I should head back inside.” She looked both ways before crossing the street and turning to walk backwards. “Hey if we could keep the whole ‘calming down’ thing from my mom that’d be great.”

He looked down at the polaroid’s and started flipping through them. A couple were of two boys with black hair and green eyes like Jackie but with Hyde’s curly hair and dimpled chin, sometimes Stevie was in the picture with them. They were all smiling or goofing around. There were one’s of just Stevie with either Hyde or Jackie, one’s of all of them together. The one’s that stood out the most though were the ones of just Hyde and Jackie together. In most of them she was sitting on his lap or his arm was slung around her. It seemed they were always in physical contact of some way and they were always smiling, whether Jackie was trying to fend off the camera in the picture or the photo seemed posed they each had a contented grin in place. He pulled out one of just the two of them Jackie on his lap her head on his shoulder she looked asleep, and Hyde was waving off the camera, in the background you could see the younger of the boys getting chased by the older wielding some sort of object.

“Stevie gave you those pictures?” He looked up to see Jackie walking his way.

“Pretty sure they’re on loan, yeah.” She came up and leaned next to him on the Camino and looked over at the photo he was looking at.

“That was taken last year. Christmas morning. I told her to throw it away once I saw it. I’m asleep, in my pajamas, exhausted, no makeup.”

“It’s a good picture.”

“Stevie’s a good photographer. I remember when she first got that camera. Never put it down.”

“She seems like a good kid.”

“The best, I mean looking back at all the stuff we put Red and Kitty through. She’s a saint.”

“You sure? She might just be better at hiding stuff than we were.”

“Maybe.” She was watching the snowflakes fall around her.

Kelso was still looking down at the photo. “God, you and Hyde huh? Who knew he’d knock a girl up before me.” Jackie hit his shoulder.

“From what I’ve heard you weren’t too far behind.”

"You really love him."

"He's my soulmate." She shivered slightly and looked around as the snow started to fall heavier. “Look we should get inside, it’s freezing.”

Kelso took the hair tie and wrapped it around the photos again before standing up and following Jackie across the street.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the last one ended with a cliffhanger and then made you guys wait a couple days and then didn't even resolve the cliffhanger. I'm sorry, you're gonna have to wait another day, to find out how Red and Kitty found Hyde and how all that's gonna play out, but I just felt this needed to be dealt with. We haven't seen a lot of Kelso and this is obviously a big shock to him so I needed him to have a little bit of an 'Internal Battle' before we move on to other stuff.


	7. External Reasonings.

**Mid December 1995**

-

Kitty was sitting on her couch in her living room working on her needle point when the phone rang.

“Hey, mom.”

“Oh, hi honey. I was thinking we could drive up there for Christmas early this year, you know I really don’t see those kids enough.”

“Yeah, sounds great. I’ve got something to tell you.”

“Go on.”

“So, a girl showed up on our doorstep looking for you today.”

“Uh huh.” She moved the phone to her shoulder to continue working on her needle point.

“She’s Hyde’s daughter.” She pricked herself at the revelation.

“Ow!”

“Mom?”

“I’m fine. Sweetie, are you sure? We’ve been looking for Steven for years.”

“Yeah we’re sure.”

“Where is he? Why is his daughter the one finding us? How old is she?”

“She wanted to do something nice for her dad for Christmas, she found a letter he wrote to you but never sent, it had our address. She’s 16. Apparently pretty soon after running away he met a girl.”

“Eric honey where is he?”

She could hear muffling over the end of the line.

“Evanston, apparently he’s doing good, owns a record store. Married.”

“Oh my gosh! Let me go get your father.”

“Actually, I should go, I just thought you should know.”

“Oh yes, sweetie, of course.” She heard the line click. “Red! RED!” He came out of a room in the back of the house.

“Yes, Kitty?”

“They found Steven.”

“What?”

“It was more like his daughter found them. Or well she was looking for us and found them.”

“Kitty what are you talking about?”

“Steven; his daughter came to point place looking for us he’s okay. Has a nice life apparently.”

“Where? Where is he?”

“Evanston.”

“That’s just over an hour away.” He moved to grab his coat and keys.

“Red what are you doing?”

“Finding our son.”

Kitty smiled and followed him out the door and moved to put her coat on.

-

**March 1979**

-

“God she’s beautiful isn’t she?”

“Of course she is, with us as parents how could she not be.”

“How is she so tiny?”

“I want to write the Forman’s.” Jackie turned to look at him. Confused about the random confession. “Let them know how I’m doing. Maybe include a photo of Stevie.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, they should know. They’re practically her grandparents.”

“I’ll help you write it.”

“Thank you.”

-

**Mid December 1995**

-

It took them nearly an hour and a half to get to Evanston with traffic and snow. They started asking around, see if anyone knew where the shop where Steven worked was. Most people gave them an annoyed look and ignored them or gave them a passive no. Eventually they went inside a coffee shop and asked the teenager behind the counter.

“Oh, Stevie’s dad’s shop?” They nodded. “It’s just down the street. The sign just says reckless, but you can’t miss it.”

“Thank you so much.” She replied to the young man as Red started to storm out of the establishment already. She opened her purse and left a small tip for his kindness and then followed him.

When she caught up with Red again he was just standing outside of the record store.

“You okay Honey?”

“He’s been gone for 17 years Kitty. Didn’t write didn’t call, and he was only three hours away. We opened our home to him, practically raised him from the time he met Eric.”

“It’s okay Red we found him.”

“With no help from him.”

“Let’s just go inside.”

When they walked in they immediately spotted him talking to an employee at the register. When he turned to greet them, they saw his face fall into one of shock. He was no longer the kid living in their basement, he was a grown man. His hair was shorter, he still had a beard, it was short, more scruff than beard. He had a new pair of sunglasses, but he was still the same old t-shirt wearing Steven.

_“Steven.”_ She breathed out.

_“Red? Kitty?”_ He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes as if he thought they had been a hallucination. “What are you doing here?”

“What are we doing here? WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE? Your dumb ass runs off for 17 years and that’s all you have to say?”

“Now, Red.” Kitty moves to placate him.

“No! I want him to explain himself.”

Steven looks down at his shoes and worries his bottom lip between his teeth.

“Red he is a grown man; he doesn’t need to be scolded.”

“No, it’s fair. I deserve it. Um, I have to get the kids from our neighbors, but I do want to talk to you. Explain.” He turned around and grabbed a flier off of the desk and a pen and wrote down something on the back. “This is my address, you can follow me home, but if you get lost.”

He handed them the piece of paper and walked behind them to open the door. “If it does any good, I missed you guys.” He said as they walked through the open door. It closes behind him.

-

He had a 6-minute drive to compose himself before he had to deal with the fallout. He had always thought about what would happen if he ran into them, any of them, but he never thought about what would happen if they found him, on purpose. Now they had found him, looked for him, thankfully Jackie wasn’t home. He didn’t know how she would take it. She was always wracked with guilt whenever thinking about the past.

He pulled into his driveway, walked across the street, and went to knock on the door. An older short plump woman opened the door. “Oh, hey Steven. You here to pick up the kids?”

“Yeah, sorry about that.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, it’s a pleasure to have kids around again.”

“Still, it was short notice, apparently Stevie got into trouble and Jackie had to help her out. Anyways I’m supposed to have company over soon, so.”

“Oh, of course! RJ! WES! YOUR DAD’S HERE!” One boy came barreling through, coming up to Hyde’s legs and holding him tightly while the other slowly walked towards his dad.

“Come on. We have guests, so just head into your room, okay?”

The kids ran across the yard and into the house. “Thank you, again.” He walked back over to his house and saw the Forman’s sitting in their car parked on the side of the road talking. He knocked on the window and nodded towards his house.

Once everyone was inside he gestured to the couch. “So, would you guys like something to drink? Tea? Beer?”

“Water’s fine.” He went into his kitchen and came back with three glasses of water. He came back and sat on a chair across from them on the couch.

“Those your kids?”

“Two of them.” He stood up to get a picture that had just the three of them in it. “That’s Stevie, RJ, and Wes.”

“Oh, Steven! They all got your hair!”

“Yeah.” Hyde chuckled.

“Why’d you leave?” Was all Red said.

“We’re just jumping right in huh?” He looked down at his boots, not brave enough to look them in the eyes. “I got a girl pregnant. At the time it seemed like the best option to just leave with her.”

“You mean Jackie.” Kitty said. Hyde looked up.

“How’d you know?”

“I caught you guys kissing when Eric was in California remember?”

“Oh.”

“I never told anyone except Red that I thought you ran away to be with her. I just don’t understand why you didn’t just come to us.”

“You guys were kind enough to take me in, then I screwed up. You guys didn’t need to take care of me while I took care of a kid, you had already done so much, and Jackie was already gone when I found out. As you probably know her dad went to jail she wanted to get out before they froze her savings account. It was just a lot of things combined. I almost wrote to you a couple times. Actually, did when Stevie was born, but I just couldn’t work up the courage to send it. Eventually it seemed like too much time had passed.”

“Steven, you know we think of you as a son. Still do, no amount of time could pass that would make us not want to know about your life.” Red still had not said a thing.

“We named our kids after you.”

Red finally spoke up. “What?”

“Yeah, uh, they actually know quite a bit about you guys. You’re the only people from point place I really talk about to my kids. Stevie’s full name is Stefanie Kathleen Hyde, and RJ is Reginald Cooper. His nick name was actually supposed to be Reggie, but Stevie kept calling him RJ cause ‘It’s cooler’ and it stuck.”

“That’s an honor. Thank you.”

“It’s the least I could have done.”

“I was all ready to put my foot in your ass and now I feel bad for being mad. Look what you did.”

“He’s gotten soft in his old age.”

“Oh, shut it.”

Hyde started laughing, liking the small familiarity of the situation before his kids came barreling into the room.

“Dad, tell Wes that I should choose the channel cause I’m older.”

“But I don’t wanna watch what you watch it’s all BORING!”

“I thought I told you guys to go to your room?”

“Sorry Dad.” They said in unison. When Wes noticed the two people sitting on their couch he bounded up to them.

“Hi! I’m Westley Dylan Hyde. I’m 8, and I like soccer.” He said with a blinding smile while holding out his hand to be shook.

“Oh! Aren’t you just adorable!”

“Hey Wes come here. You too RJ.” RJ groaned and walked over while Wes crawled happily into his Dad’s lap. “You know how I told you when I was in highschool I was in trouble and two very nice people took me in.” They both nodded. “This is them. RJ you’re named after Red.” RJ looked over.

“It’s nice to meet you, sir.” He held out his hand. “You too.” He moved to Kitty.

“Hi! I’m your Grandma Kitty and this is your Grandpa Red.” Hyde smiled at the way she introduced herself.

“Grandpa? Like Grandpa Barnett?” Wes asked.

“Yeah sort of.” Kitty and Red gave him a questioning look. “Long story. Now RJ go put a movie you both like on.”

“But!”

“Now!” RJ sulked and Wes followed behind with a bounce in his step.

“Wes is so much like Jackie.”

“I thought the same thing about RJ, but now look at him. He’s all broody.” He chuckled to himself before a thought hit him. “How’d you find me?”

“Your daughter showed up at our old house. Wanted to find us as a Christmas present or something.”

“That explains the trouble Stevie had to get bailed out of. Wait if it’s your old house, how do you know she was there?”

“Well, Eric and Donna live there now.”

“WHAT!”

“Yeah, and they called us to let us know. I don’t think they expected red to drive down here so spontaneously though.”

“But Jackie’s down there right now. None of our friends knew we ever got together. Stevie doesn’t even think we knew each other before we ran away.”

“Well, they’re in for a shock.” Kitty said before letting out her signature laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now you know how they found out, and we met the other Hyde kids yay! Comment!!! Please!


	8. Meet the Parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is entirely flashback. Little to do plot wise.

**April 1982**

-

Jackie was lying in bed studying her engagement ring intently. It wasn’t as extravagant as she once imagined it would be, but it was still nice. It had three small gemstones; the main one, a diamond, in a marquise cut with one sapphire, her birthstone, on either side. The band was white gold. It was small but beautiful.

“So, when do you want to get married?”

“Now!” He laughed loudly, getting ready for bed.

“It’ll probably take a couple days, maybe even a few weeks for the license to process.”

“We’ll start the process tomorrow. Then once everything’s ready we’ll head down to the nearest church.”

“You don’t want an extravagant wedding? No, white doves being released as you walk down the aisle or Stevie being the flower girl riding in on a pony?” He asked while getting into bed.

“I want to stand in front of you and Stef, and all of our friends saying I love you and will stay with you forever and will pop out a million more babies with you.”

“I don’t know about that. I think we’re good with just Stevie.”

“We’ll talk.” She leaned over and kissed him before turning the light off. “Good night.”

“What? I propose to you and all I get is a kiss good night?” He moves to kiss her, and she moves to crawl on top of him, but before anything can happen their door creaks open.

“Daddy? Mommy?” They flop down on the bed.

“Yeah Stevie what’s wrong?”

“Bad dream.” She came closer to the bed. “Can I sleep here?”

Hyde turned to pick the small toddler up and ruffled her hair. “Of course, you can.” He kissed the top of her hair and laid her down in bed between them. Jackie gave him an incredulous look and he just shrugged in response. She just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

-

The next day they had gone to the courthouse with all their papers to get their marriage license. The lady working the desk was smacking gum loudly and walked them through everything they needed to do. When they handed over their birth certificates she looked at the paper weirdly and then them.

“Yeah, this is fake can’t help you.” She handed back the papers.

“I’m sorry what?”

“You Steven Hyde?” He nodded. “I don’t know what to tell you, it’s a fake. Maybe your parents lost it and didn’t go through the trouble of fixin’ it, just printed one out at the library. Happens more than you think.”

“So, what do we do?”

“You could apply for a new one, or you could go to the hospital you were born in. They should have a copy. NEXT!”

“Wait! No! We want to get our marriage license.”

“No can do. NEXT!”

They were pushed out of the way and left with no answers.

They were in their car on the way home.

“I can’t believe that!”

“Looks like we’re going to Point Place.” Jackie looked at him like he was crazy. “It’s either that or wait a couple weeks for my birth certificate shit to get fixed then another week or so for the marriage license. I could just pop by point place general see if they have a copy, get a copy myself, and we’d be done by next week. Haven’t you been saying that you might wanna go visit your dad in jail?”

“Yeah, but I mean there’s so many people we could run into.”

“We’ll only go where we have to, plus most our friends probably have moved away by now. You can take Stevie to meet her Grandad.”

“You really think I’m going to take our three-year-old daughter to a prison when he doesn’t even know she exists?”

“Okay, fair point. You could take a picture of her, let him know she exists.”

“Fine.”

“So, tomorrow?”

“Yeah, tomorrow.”

-

The next day they got up early and got Stevie ready to go for a drive. Hyde dropped Jackie off at the prison her dad was in and drove to the hospital with Stevie in the backseat.

Jackie looked up at the imposing building in front of her and took a deep breath. She walked in and signed a sheet. When they called her up they did a thorough examination of her belongings and pat her down before letting her in to see him. They led her to a room with a small table where her dad sat, there was a guard in the corner of the room.

“Jackie? Sweetheart?”

“Hi Daddy.” He went to hug her, but the guard cleared his throat and gave a warning glare. She sat down across from him and set her bag down next to her.

“What are you doing here? You’ve never visited before.”

“I didn’t know if you wanted to see me. Or if I wanted to see you.”

“Why’d you run off? Is it cause the cops were looking for me because you didn’t need to do that.”

“No, I mean that was part of it but,” She reached into her bag while the guard watched her intently. She pulled out a small photo and set it on the table. “I have a daughter, she’s three. She’s named after her daddy, just like me.” She had a hesitant smile. “I’m engaged to her dad. He proposed on Friday.”

“You have a daughter?”

She let the smile take full hold over her face. “Yeah, she’s amazing, smart, beautiful.”

“You’re not married?”

And just like that the smile dropped. “No. But I am getting married daddy.”

“You’ve had your daughter walk around for years knowing she’s a bastard and not doing anything to change it? Do you have any idea what that would do to our family name?”

“Probably no worse than embezzlement and bribery.”

“Don’t turn this back around on me this is about your mistake.”

“No! This is because I wanted my father to know he had a granddaughter, know that I did the right thing and made sure she had a good life.”

“I would never claim a bastard as my granddaughter.”

“Then I guess you don’t have a daughter either.” She grabbed the photo and her purse. And quickly walked out of the room, trying not to let her tears fall until she got out of the prison. When she got past the doors she moved to lean against the wall and started to sob. After several minutes of crying and trying to compose herself she went back inside to use the pay phone to call Steven.

“This is Point Place General.”

“Hi, I’m trying to find my fiancé, Steven Hyde, he’s talking to someone about a copy of his birth certificate.”

“One second.”

She heard an all call for Steven Hyde through the phone.

“I’ll put you on hold until we find him.”

After a few short minutes and the operator asking for another quarter he finally was on the other line.

“Jackie?”

“Hey, Puddin’.”

“What’s wrong, Doll?”

“Nothing, this was just a bad idea I’ll tell you on the way home.”

“Okay, I should be done here pretty quickly. I’ll be there in about 20.”

“Yeah okay thanks. Tell Stevie I love her.”

“Will do.”

“I love you.”

“You too.”

-

“Okay sir, this is your birth certificate, though the father is listed differently. I may have gotten it wrong.”

“Can I see it?” He grabbed the paper. It was almost identical to the one he had before except for some minor details and one large one. His father was listed as a man named William Barnett. “No, this is probably right.”

“Are you sure, I can double check.”

“My mom was a bit of a whore.” He snarked.

“Oh, uh okay.”

“Can I take this?”

“Yeah, yes.”

“Thanks, come on Stevie.”

He grabbed onto his daughter’s hand and led her through the hospital.

-

When he pulled up to the prison Jackie was already sitting outside waiting for him. He could see tear tracks in her makeup that she tried to wipe away and was currently trying to fix in her compact. He got out of the car and hoisted Stevie onto his hip while walking over to her.

“Hey, did it go okay?” She looked up and blinked before closing the compact and giving a tight-lipped smile.

“Later. Just give me our daughter.” He handed her over to her and Jackie shoved her face into her curly hair before coming back up and looking the girl in the eyes. “I love you, nothing could ever change that, okay? Nothing.”

Stevie just smiled and nodded. “Can we get ice cream?”

She let out a watery laugh. “Yeah, once we’re back in Illinois okay?” She turned to Steven “I want to get out of this stupid town.”

“Let’s go.” He put his arm over Jackie, and they walked back to the car.

-

They had been in the car for an hour already and neither of them had said anything. Stevie had fallen asleep in the car and they were sitting in silence. Only the hums of the radio filling the void.

“You gonna tell me what happened with your dad?”

“Oh, you know the usual. Got scolded for disrespecting the family name, can you believe that? My dad, sitting there in handcuffs has the nerve to tell me _I’M_ ruining the family name! And that’s not even worst part. He repeatedly called Stevie bastard which she is _not_.”

“By definition she kinda is.”

“Shut up! She’s not a bastard I don’t care what the definition is, she’s not. Now let me finish, and he basically said that she’s not his granddaughter because of it. So, I stormed out, and I think I disowned him. Disowned myself? Whatever I don’t care I don’t want to see his stupid face ever again. How did it go at the hospital?”

“Fine, got the birth certificate.” He pulled the folded piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it over to her.

“This says your dads name is William Barnett.”

“Yup.”

“But it’s not. I don’t think Bud’s his real name but”

“My mom was a slut, my parents didn’t ever actually get married, she forged a birth certificate to cover it up with Bud. It’s not like this guy cared either.”

“But he might not know you exist, if he is your father. Don’t you wanna at least look for him?”

“Nope. In my experience parents’ suck. Besides if this guy doesn’t know about me why should I be the one to tell him, and if he does he doesn’t deserve my time.”

“But Stevie could grow up with a grandfather.”

“She could have that if we turned around right now and showed up at the Forman’s, she doesn’t need a grandfather that probably doesn’t care about me or her. She has us, her auntie Liz. Rob from the store. Who else does she need?”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Positive. Now, if we hurry we might be able to get to the courthouse before five and can get our marriage license started.”

“Okay, don’t forget we need to get Stef ice cream once we get to the border I don’t want her throwing a fit.”

Hyde turned the dial on the radio up slightly and they drove back home.

-

**Late June 1986**

-

A tall black man in a nice suit walked into the store and dinged the bell next to the cash register.

“Hey sir, how can I help you?”

The man looked up and walked towards him. “Are you the store’s owner?”

“We’re currently in the process of switching. I will be, why?”

“I heard that the old owners retiring. I own a chain of record stores called Grooves, I was wondering if the old owner or perhaps you were looking to sell. This spot would be great to expand to.”

“Oh, what’s your name sir?” He held out his hand.

“W.B.” He moved to shake it.

“Hyde. Uh, I’m not looking to sell, but Rob might. Which would suck for me, but you know how it goes. Do you have a card?”

“In fact, I do.” He pulled a card from the inner pocket of his suit. “If you could have him call me that would be great.” He turned to walk away.

“Wait your names William Barnett?”

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

“You wouldn’t happen to have know- You know what it’s stupid never mind.”

“Are you sure. There are no stupid questions.”

“Yeah, okay. Did you ever know an Edna, wow I don’t know her maiden name, uh married a Hyde? Probably spring, winter of 69?”

“Yeah, I actually did why?”

“Um,” Before he could finish or even formulate the thought the door to the store opened and a head of long curly blonde hair flashed through the store. Followed by Jackie holding a toddler on her hip.

“Dad! I learned a WHOLE song on the guitar today.”

“That’s great honey.”

Jackie walked up to him and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Who’s this?”

“William Barnett, he wants to talk to Rob about buying the store.”

“Oh my god! William Barnett?”

“I’m sorry I’m not sure what’s going on?” Jackie turned to him and gave him a bright smile.

“Would you be willing to take a blood test?”

Hyde and W.B. both just turned to her with wide eyes.

-

The blood test came back positive, he was Steven’s father. He had a half-sister, Angie apparently. Most importantly his kids had a grandfather, and when Wes came along a year later. W.B. and Angie would be sitting in the waiting room with his kids while waiting for the new addition to the family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the ENGAGEMENT RING I was basing it off of I'm not sure how much it actually costs or would've costed in the 80s but I've been looking at engagement rings all day and I believe it would be something they could afford at the time. By this point they'd have some money saved up, both of them having stable jobs and all. I wanted to add WB cause I think he's great and this is how they came about it in this timeline/universe/whatever you wanna call it, I don't remember exactly how it went down on the show but I know it had to do with his birth certificate so. Anyways comment, leave kudos, COMMENT! Or don't I don't care. (Yes I do.)


End file.
